• Chess! The kids will all start learning to play chess. Chess will teach the kids skills like strategic planning and problem solving. Kids will have tournaments later in the year with the other 2nd graders and the 3rd graders.
• Science: balancing things, something in the middle, and insects. The kids will grow butterflies and other insects this spring.
• Reading: kids will be broken up into smaller groups based on their skills both in phonics and comprehension/fluency.
• Math: our school district is in flux as the district will be adopting a new math curriculum next year. This year will be a mish-mash of the old and the new and supplemental materials as the teachers get the kids up-to-date on anything they are currently missing before moving to the new program next year. They'll be concentrating on adding/subtracting double-digit numbers and place values among other things.
• Social Studies: the school has a new social studies program that they're tyring out on our kids this year. Teachers seem excited about it. Steve liked the text book.
• Writing: the kids will practice writing narratives, both fiction and "fact" (or non-fiction).

Oh, and one other interesting thing: no one knows what to do about handwriting. How valuable is it? Both in neatness and cursive writing. Most adults go to a computer when they have to write anything much longer than a paragraph. The school and district will be doing some research to come up with something.

I'm sure there was more and if I discover anything really interesting, I'll post it here.

In the meantime, a Ben moment.

Our playground ends at a big tall hill. The kids run up the hill and play up on the top of it. Just barely out of earshot and out of sight if they go in the woods, which they are not supposed to do. Ben and his friend Alex came running down from the hill covered in reddish streaks: on their faces, their hands and arms, everywhere. Turns out the kids found some blackberry brambles (I know, you can't throw a stick out here without it getting tangled in blackberry brambles). They had snack, and then wrote on themselves with the juice and then painted sticks so that it would look like blood.

I just shake my head and say, "Boys."

As told to Mama by Kristen.

BEN: My Papa works too much.

KRISTEN: Why do you think he works so much?

BEN: So he can put money on Mama's credit card.

In the car today

BEN: I don't want to be an astronaut anymore.

MAMA: Why not?

BEN: 'Cause then I wouldn't be able to see my kids ever.

We talked for more on this: Ben has decided he would rather work for a company like Microsoft like his Papa so he can come home almost every night to see his kids.

Ben wanted an astronaut/space/NASA party. I wanted a party at home. We figured out how to make both happen.

First, the invitation:

Mission Control Specialist Serdy

Astronaut Trainee Guest

Dear Astronaut Trainee:

BLAST OFF! Commander Ben Serdy has a special mission and needs more astronauts. You have been selected to be part of the Launch Crew for a mission to Outer Space!

Mission Objective: Help Commander Ben Serdy have a Happy Birthday!

Astronauts report for duty Friday August 15, 2008.

Countdown begins at 1100 hours (11:00 AM start time).

Return to Earth at 1330 hours (1:30 PM end time).

Launch Site: Space Station Serdy.

Coordinates: [our address]

Communicate with Specialist Valerie Serdy at Mission Control to confirm your flight readiness.

Be prepared to train for your new position and enjoy snack, drinks, and cake!

Next: the decorations:

• I drilled holes in plastic glow-in-the-dark stars and strung them together with fishing line. Kristen hung them along the stairway to the basement
• I strung black and blue balloons (that Kristen blew up!) on fishing line. We hung them along the deck railing along with blue and silver stars

Next: the day of the party

Once all the astronaut trainees arrived, we sat them down to get a preview of what they were training for: they watched the lift-off scene in Apollo 13.

Then, we started our training be exercising to make our bodies strong for space. We passed out jump ropes, demonstrated how to jump and let the kids go. There was much whining: most of the kids didn't know how to jump rope and it was HOT HOT HOT the day of the party. Eventually everyone tried to jump and most kids got the hang of it enough to skip three or four or five times.

Then, we moved on to the bear crawl and the crab walk. Everyone hated the crab walk! They kept falling and the grass was really wet so we switched to bear crawl races.

After we wore the kids out (just a teeny bit) we had some astronaut snacks: freeze-dried apples, freeze-dried potatoes (they all LOVED these), and freeze-dried ice cream sandwich. Again, much love for the ice cream sandwich.

We did the string game next. Earlier in the day I tied little parachute dudes to string and wrapped the string round and round the living room. Each astronaut had to navigate the string maze to rescue their parachute guy. Mostly the kids got frustrated with the maze so we had to help them rescue their parachute men. Then they took turns dropping them off the balcony. Kristen came in with a request for a new game so we switched to the Asteroid Game. Each kid got a balloon-asteroid and had to keep the asteroid from hitting the earth. If the asteroids hit the earth, the kids all had to "become extinct" just like the dinosaurs.

Lunch next: pizza and apples. Then craft: each kid got to decorate a Pringles can I had already spray-painted white. Then it was off to the moon-rock hunt (treasures wrapped in foil). The kids ran around the yard searching for the moon rocks Kristen hid. (By the way, somehow amidst all this help, Kristen took some fantastic shots of the party!)

Cake, ice cream, and present opening followed.

Finally, the kids all shot off rockets (stomp-rockets, not the kind with any kind of ignition sequence) while waiting for their parents to pick them up.

No one wanted to leave and there was much giggling in between mild bouts of frustration. No one cried so all in all it was a fantastic party!

Sometimes, Ben gets up after bedtime to brush his teeth with his new High School Musical tooth brush that plays music for two minutes just to see if he can figure out how to get it to work.

It has taken us a long time to find a babysitter we love as much as our previous Babysitter Extraordinare but the wait was worth it. But Kristen is not only a fabulous babysitter, she is also an up-and-coming artistic Photographer Extraordinaire also. She took photos of Ben's birthday party. Want to see some samples along with some of Kristen's other work?

Visit: http://www.ktourtillottephotography.blogspot.com/

Then send Kristen e-mail if you'd like to have some unique photos taken of your family!

Because he has the body of a 60-year old man...

He gets in bed and his back hurts. So he gets up and reads a book.

He has to pee.

His feet hurt.

He has to get a drink of water.

He has to look at the moon.

Scout comes into his room twice at night to check up on him. But don't close his door so Scout can't do it.

Mason is still up and eating ice cream. Ben is spying on them.

He has growing pains.

He has growing pains again.

He's too cold.

He's too hot.

His blanket is too heavy but if you take it off, he gets too cold.

He can't find the right stuffed animal to sleep with (but he swears to me that he doesn't sleep with animals anymore).

I am so ready to install a webcam in his room to spy on him...

BEN:

I have a really big brain.

'Cause I remembered where my eye doctor was from a whole year ago.

--Said to Papa the day Ben had to give me directions to his eye doctor for his annual checkup.

His eyes are fine, by the way. Other than the red/green color deficiency.

BEN:

I wish McDonalds was as slow as Pallino's and Pallino's was as fast as McDonalds.

If a fairy gave me one wish I would totally wish that wish.

Scout the cat had surgery Friday.

They mangled him.

Scout has had a lump about the size of my little finger nail under his skin for a little while now. The vet inspected it and said it was either a mass cell or melanoma. Either way, it was some kind of cancer and had to be removed. In most cases, removing the lump is enough: no spreading, no more medicines, nothing. However, the lump does have to be removed because it can spread or release chemicals in the cat's bloodstream that makes him ill (vomiting. We're really just in this to save our carpets...).

So, we dropped Scout off Friday expecting a teeny lump to be removed. He came back with half his back shaved. Scout is technically a "medium haired domestic" cat. I am afraid what a long haired cat looks like. His hair is 2 to 2 1/2 inches long. Scout came back cold.

Scout came back with three incisions rather than just one. Scout came back with 16 stitches: the middle incision has 10 all by itself. He is now wearing a cone that is connected to his head by an ace bandage (Scout has never worn a collar).

He also came back with a morphine-based pain medicine.

Scout is very unhappy. His head seems to be constantly itchy. He begs for us to scratch his head over and over and over again. Scout is frustrated that he can't head-butt us. He now just mashes his cone head-on into us when he wants attention. Today, we leaned his cone against my face. Leaned. A lot. I didn't like having a face full of vet-smelly plastic stuck to my face but I pet the booger-boy anyway.

It's become a full-time job taking care of this cat: scratching his head, rubbing underneath the ace bandage, holding him down without touching his stitches to give him his medicine, moving his cone out of his way when he gets it stuck in the couch cushions...

He's also not supposed to climb stairs (our house has three floors), jump on anything (we have beds, couches, cat scratching posts), or scratch at his stitches. Except for the scratching, we've ignored everything else.

Scout will be a cone head until at least Friday, Aug 22.

After that, we'll get to watch the patch of hair the shape and approximate size of Utah grow back. Last time Scout had hair shaved, it all grew back gray. His backside could start looking pretty funny once it stops looking pretty gnarly...

Our diving friend Alison has a boat. She likes to water ski (when she isn't parasailing, scuba diving, delivering babies, walking a dog that weighs more than her... it's possible our friend has ADHD). Last summer, Alison invited us to go on the lake with her to watch the Blue Angels practice.

This year, we were able to take her up on it.

For those of you who don't live in Seattle, the Blue Angels perform an air show every year during Seafair. They practice Thursday and Friday over Lake Washington, closing the I-90 bridge, and perform Saturday and Sunday. There are plenty of viewing spots at parks all around Lake Washington, but I'm pretty convinced the best spot is right on the water.

Alison invited Ben and I and graciously allowed (encouraged!) Ben  to invite a friend. He chose a friend from school, Sean, and Sean's parents trusted me enough to let us take their youngest on a stranger's boat.

We had some nervousness but once on the boat, the boys had a blast. They both knelt on the back seat to turn around and watch where we'd been. We had a picnic on the water, saw the big set of dinosaur bones ensconced in someone's living room, and watched the Blue Angels practice.

At first, the planes were too loud and both boys winced and complained. Sean wrapped the neck of his life vest around his ears. So, I pulled out the massive ear protectors Steve uses in his wood shop and passed them out. The boys looked like big dorks but they seriously enjoyed the show.

At one point, the local Coast Guard stopped by and asked if we wanted free ice cream. Even with the headphones on the boys heard that! Alison's boat, being a water ski boat, is very low to the water. The CG boat slowly inched towards us until the prow, and anchor, floated gently right above my head.  The CG guy had to practically lay down over the prow to reach down to us to hand us the free coupons for Dairy Queen ice cream. Turns out our boys were wearing their life vests correctly and the CG rewarded them for that!

The practice session slowed way down as the Angels did whatever it was they did. Ben got bored and raced from the front of the boat to the back depending on whether Alison was moving the boat or not. Sean fell asleep. Seriously. Face first on the soft couches in the front of the bus. Ben had to hop over him to find a space in the front to watch.

We finally left, got gas, and headed for home. The boys kept yelling at Alison to go faster! Faster! So she did. With both boys right up front, they really felt the speed and laughed and laughed and laughed. Right up until Sean's hat flew off.

Alison slowed the boat way down to try to find the hat but right as she slowed the boat a wave came over the front, soaking Ben. Both boys ended up wrapped in towels sitting on my lap near tears: Sean for his missing hat, Ben for his soaked clothes.

And another outing successfully ended!

Thanks, Miss Alison! We all had a great time!